DOLABELLA, PUBLIUS CORNELIUS, Roman general and son-in-law of Cicero, was born about 70 b.c. He was by far the most important of the Dolabellae, a family of the patrician gens Cornelia. In the civil wars he at first took the side of Pompey, but afterwards went over to Caesar, and was present at the battle of Pharsalus. To escape the urgent demands of his creditors, he introduced (as one of the tribunes) a bill proposing that all debts should be cancelled. This was strongly resisted by his colleagues, and led to serious disturbances in the city. Caesar, on his return from Alexandria, seeing the expediency of removing Dolabella from Rome, took him as one of his generals in the expedition to Africa and Spain. On Caesar’s death Dolabella seized the insignia of the consulship (which had already been conditionally promised him), and, by making friends with Brutus and the other assassins, was confirmed in his office. When, however, M. Antonius offered him the command of the expedition against the Parthians and the province of Syria he changed sides at once. His journey to the province was marked by plundering, extortion and the murder of C. Trebonius, proconsul of Asia, who refused to allow him to enter Smyrna. He was thereupon declared a public enemy and superseded by C. Cassius (the murderer of Caesar), who attacked him in Laodicea. On the capture of the place, Dolabella ordered one of his soldiers to kill him (43). Throughout his life he was a profligate and a spendthrift.
See Cicero’s Letters (ed. Tyrrell and Purser); G. Boissier, Cicero and his Friends (Eng. trans., 1897); Orelli, Onomasticon Tullianum; Dio Cassius xli. 40, xlii. 29, xliii. 51, xliv. 22, xlvi. 40, xlvii. 30; Appian, Bell. civ. iii. 7, iv. 60.
DOLBEN, JOHN (1625-1686), English divine, was the son of William Dolben (d. 1631), prebendary of Lincoln and bishop-designate of Gloucester. He was educated at Westminster under Richard Busby and at Christ Church, Oxford. He fought on the royalist side at Marston Moor, 1644. Subsequently he took orders and maintained in private the proscribed Anglican service. At the Restoration he became canon of Christ Church (1660) and prebendary of St Paul’s, London (1661). As dean of Westminster (1662-1683) he opposed an attempt to bring the abbey under diocesan rule. In 1666 he was made bishop of Rochester, and in 1683 archbishop of York; he distinguished himself by reforming the discipline of the cathedrals in these dioceses. His son John Dolben (1662-1710) was a barrister and politician; he was M.P. for Liskeard from 1707 to 1710 and manager of Sacheverell’s impeachment in 1709.
DOLCE, LUDOVICO, or Luigi (1508-1568 or 1569), Italian writer, was a native of Venice, and belonged to a family of honourable tradition but decadent fortune. He received a good education, and early undertook the task of maintaining himself by his pen. Translations from Greek and Latin epics, satires, histories, plays and treatises on language and art followed each other in rapid succession, till the whole number amounted to upwards of seventy works. But he is now mainly memorable as the author of Marianna, a tragedy from the life of Herod, which was recast in French by Tristan and by Voltaire, and still keeps a place on the stage. Four licentious comedies, Il Ragazzo (1541), Il Capitano (1545), Il Marito (1560), Il Ruffiano (1560), and seven of Seneca’s tragedies complete the list of his dramatic efforts. In one epic—to translate the title-page—“he has marvellously reduced into ottava rima and united into one narrative the stories of the Iliad and the Aeneid”; in another he devotes thirty-nine cantos to a certain Primaleone, son of Palmerius; in a third he celebrates the first exploits of Count Orlando; and in a fourth he sings of the Paladin Sacripante. A life of the emperor Charles V. and a similar account of Ferdinand I., published respectively in 1560 and 1566, are his chief historical productions; and among his minor treatises it is enough to mention the Osservazioni sulla lingua volgare (1550); the Dialogo della pittura (1557); and the Dialogo nel quale si ragiona del modo di accrescar la memoria (1552).
DOLCI, CARLO, or Carlino (1616-1686), Italian painter, was born in Florence in May 1616. He was the grandson of a painter on the mother’s side, and became a disciple of Jacopo Vignali; and when only eleven years of age he attempted a whole figure of St John, and a head of the infant Christ, which received extraordinary approbation. He afterwards painted a portrait of his mother, and displayed a new and delicate style which brought him into notice, and procured him extensive employment at Florence (from which city he hardly ever moved) and in other parts of Italy. Dolci used his pencil chiefly in sacred subjects, and bestowed much labour on his pictures. In his manner of working he was remarkably slow. It is said that his brain was affected by seeing Luca Giordano, in 1682, despatch more business in four or five hours than he could have executed in as many months, and that he hence fell into a state of hypochondria, which compelled him to relinquish his art, and soon brought him to the grave. His works are not very numerous. He generally painted in a small size, although there are a few pictures by him as large as life. He died in Florence in January 1686, leaving a daughter (Agnese), who arrived at some degree of excellence in copying the works of her father.
Carlo Dolci holds somewhat the same rank in the Florentine that Sassoferrato does in the Roman school. Without the possession of much genius, invention or elevation of type, both these artists produced highly wrought pictures, extremely attractive to some tastes. The works of Dolci are easily distinguishable by the delicacy of the composition, and by an agreeable tint of colour, improved by judicious management of the chiaroscuro, which gives his figures a striking relief; he affected the use of ultramarine, much loaded in tint. “His pencil,” says Pilkington, “was tender, his touch inexpressibly neat, and his colouring transparent; though he has often been censured for the excessive labour bestowed on his pictures, and also for giving his carnations more of the appearance of ivory than the look of flesh.” All his best productions are of a devout description; they frequently represent the patient suffering of Christ or the sorrows of the Mater Dolorosa. Dolci was, in fact, from early youth, exceedingly pious; it is said that during passion week every year he painted a half-figure of the Saviour. His sacred heads are marked with pathetic or at least strongly sentimental emotion. There is a want of character in his pictures, and his grouping lacks harmonious unison, but the general tone accords with the idea of the passion portrayed. Among the best works of this master are the “St Sebastian”; the “Four Evangelists,” at Florence; “Christ Breaking the Bread,” in the marquess of Exeter’s collection at Burleigh; the “St Cecilia” in Dresden; an “Adoration of the Magi”; and in especial “St Andrew praying before his Crucifixion,” in the Pitti gallery, his most important composition, painted in 1646; also several smaller pictures, which are highly valued, and occupy honourable places in the richest galleries.